Network traffic from Anarchy Online: analysis, statistics and applications: a server-side traffic trace

Authors:
Andreas Petlund;Pål Halvorsen;Pål Frogner Hansen;Torbjörn Lindgren;Rui Casais;Carsten Griwodz
Affiliations:
University of Oslo, Norway, and Simula Research Laboratory, Norway;University of Oslo, Norway, and Simula Research Laboratory, Norway;Funcom, Norway;Funcom, Norway;Funcom, Norway;University of Oslo, Norway, and Simula Research Laboratory, Norway
Venue:
Proceedings of the 3rd Multimedia Systems Conference
Year:
2012

Citing 5
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Abstract

We present a dataset -- a real-world, server-side packet trace [8] -- from Anarchy Online [9]. Anarchy Online is a science fiction-themed massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG), published and developed by Funcom [7]. We present statistics from the network traffic and show that it is a representative dataset for similar games. From the dataset, one can extract several key characteristics from such scenarios like payload sizes, packet rates, data delivery latencies, retransmission statistics, loss rates and stream correlation. The dataset can be used several ways: by replaying the game traffic, components like congestion control mechanisms, middlewares, packet schedulers, router queue behaviour, etc. can be analysed. Based on the observed statistics from the trace, such interactive game traffic shows completely different behaviour compared to the greedy, high-rate streams most network mechanisms are designed for, e.g., file download, video streaming and web-surfing. We hope that the dataset can be used to push research forward in the field of system support for games.